KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is set to receive another two million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine in July, which will help speed up the vaccination process under the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (NIP).
In announcing this, the coordinating Minister for the NIP, Khairy Jamaluddin also said 559,000 doses of AstraZeneca, obtained through procurement from the COVAX facility is expected to arrive today for distribution.
He said the same amount of doses is scheduled to reach Malaysia in the next few days, followed by another 600,000 doses next month.
"The AstraZeneca vaccine will always be delivered to us, but the biggest supply will be coming from Pfizer, amounting to two million doses a week in July and that will help us a lot in speeding up the vaccination process," he said while on Selamat Pagi Malaysia programme, today.
In line with the increase in supply to drive the rate of vaccination up to 80,000 doses a day, Khairy said priority would be given to the elderly in the next few weeks as they face the highest risk of Covid-19 infection.
Through a special task force meeting, several strategies would be jointly decided to speed up the immunisation process for the elderly.
"It may not be announced, but we will implement a mobile unit approach. In fact, last week, we started with a care center for the elderly where they were not asked to go out to the Vaccination Center (PPV).
"But a mobile vaccination team from the health ministry will be sent to the care center for the elderly to carry out vaccinations in the area, so the same concept can be used elsewhere.
"In fact, I have discussed with Tan Sri Annuar Musa (Federal Territories Minister) about the mobile team from Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL).
"The team is accompanied by nurses and doctors who will be sent to the People's Housing Project (PPR) apartment to implement the vaccination programme, thus not requiring senior citizens to head out to the PPV," he said.
On the concept of guided vaccination, Khairy, who is also the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, said relevant simulations had been done.
He explained that further pilot sessions based on the concept of guided vaccination will be conducted at certain locations in the near future.
"When it is ready, I will announce where the concept of this pilot prototype is," he said.